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We might have seen a changing of the guard at cornerback Thursday in the final two plays of practice.

Working in the two-minute offense to close things out, Ben Roethlisberger lofted a 36-yard TD pass down the sideline to Antonio Brown, who got behind Keenan Lewis - the current frontrunner to start opposite Ike Taylor.

On the very next play, Cortez Allen, who along with Curtis Brown is fighting to unseat Lewis, leaped over rookie receiver Tony Clemons to pick off a Byron Leftwich pass along the sideline, showing the athleticism that has the coaching staff so excited about him.

Lewis has been battling a shoulder injury - and had to briefly leave practice Thursday after jacking up wideout David Gilreath at the line of scrimmage - but Allen's athletic ability is hard to overlook.

Coming out of the Citadel, Allen was supposed to be a project. At this point, the former fourth-round draft pick looks like the second coming of Ike Taylor - with hands.

@ LaMarr Woodley sat out practice again today and as a result, the linebackers vs. tight ends running drill was a walkover for the tight ends - who to this point have looked like five guys named Moe.

Jamie McCoy continues to shine in the one-on-one blocking drills, but until he lines up against Woodley, James Harrison or even Jason Worilds, we'll withhold judgement.

On the defensive side, the only linebacker who flashed was Adrian Robinson, a rookie out of Temple.

After beating pretty much everyone the team put in front of him, Robinson drew what Mike Tomlin called, "Varsity reps" against David Johnson.

Robinson also looked good there.

Mind you, Heath Miller has not been participating in these drills for the tight ends.

@ A moment after being chastised for not being physical enough on a stunt, rookie nose tackle Alameda Ta'amu brought the pain in a collision with Ramon Foster. That was 700 pounds of human being ramming into each other there and was not for the faint of heart.

Cam Heyward looks like a beast in those drills.

He jacked up Trai Essex so hard on a bull rush that it's possible Essex' ancestors felt it.

@ Cam Heyward and rookie Mike Adams had some Ohio State on Ohio State violence after Adams pancaked Heyward in a team drill.

Heyward apparently took offense to Adams going for the kill shot and the two squared off and started swinging.

Willie Colon stepped in to break it up, but then also started swinging at Adams.

This might be the most exciting thing I've read so far. Adams wasn't my favorite pick. I wasn't sure how good he could be and he looks a little lazy to me from what I've seen of him. Sounds like he's got a little more fight in him than I thought.

He's got the size and athleticism to be a great tackle. I just wasn't sure he had the mean streak or the want to. Maybe I was wrong.

This might be the most exciting thing I've read so far. Adams wasn't my favorite pick. I wasn't sure how good he could be and he looks a little lazy to me from what I've seen of him. Sounds like he's got a little more fight in him than I thought.

He's got the size and athleticism to be a great tackle. I just wasn't sure he had the mean streak or the want to. Maybe I was wrong.

If the team was wise enough to FINALLY get rid of Arians, why are they not wise enough to realize one of his pet players stinks? I can't believe Hynoski was out there as an undrafted free agent and Pgh did nothing to attempt to sign the guy. What a huge mistake and he was right in their back yard. Such a foolish non move.

With Hines Ward retired the title for most people wearing your jersey has fallen to Troy Polamalu. There were lots of interesting Steelers gear that people were wearing. But my vote for the most impressive was that two people had Pro Bowl jerseys for James Harrison and Troy.

After a bit of rain (thunderstorms plague the area like clockwork around 5pm daily) some good live music to warm up the crowd, the long snappers and kickers arrived first. Nobody paid much attention. Then a caravan of school buses arrived with a police escort. The excitement building now. Bill Hargrove, the voice of the Steelers was the public address announcer. The organization was representing tonight.

Dressed somewhat uncharacteristically in an oversized gold sweat shirt, and a white cap, Tomlin was the first person introduced and walked out on to the field alone to a huge standing ovation. Make no mistake about it, Tomlin is a rock star with the fan base. He was then followed by the players and coaches who then fanned out in all directions to sign autographs. The players closest to me included Brett Keisel, Manny Sanders, Antonio Brown (another rock star), Jake Stoller and Cortez Allen.

Field goal kicking was next. Shaun Suisham was accurate with his attempts, hitting a range of kicks up to 48 yards out. Daniel Hrapmann definitely had the stronger leg, nailing a 53 yarder with plenty to spare.

As Rebecca Rollett noted during her visit earlier in the week, watching practice is like being at a three ring circus, decisions have to be made as to what to focus upon. I know I missed a lot. But here is what I got.

Size. Last year I was really struck with how big Cam Heyward is. So I was impressed with how much he is dwarfed by Mike Adams, Marcus Gilbert and Leonard Pope. These are some large men. Much has been made of the relative lack of size of Sean Spence. This should not be an issue. Spence is clearly bigger than Larry Foote (in fact, I am amazed at how small Foote is compared to the other linebackers), and only slightly smaller than Stephenson Sylvester. When I watch him working next to Steve McLendon I can see why there would be some conversation about putting Ziggy Hood at nose tackle. He is really rather thick, powerfully built.

Fights. Only one of note. Heyward and, I believe, Ramon Foster got into it briefly with no decision. I was amused by the crowd reaction; pleased with the aggression, but a little torn over the fact that these 'brothers' would be abusive to each other. Save it for the Bengals.

I'm sure he was probably there but I didn't spot James Harrison. When the band was playing they would try to amp the crowd up be getting them to cheer at the mention of various Steelers by name. Based on that measure, Deebo is wildly popular. In fact, one thing about Steelers fans has not changed; as much as they like the various offensive players, their first love is defense. A band member stated that Harrison and Troy are "...the only two who still play this game the way it's supposed to be played. We don't care about the fines." That got a big ovation.

Quarterbacks. Ben was held out of the eleven on eleven segments but otherwise participated fully. Byron Leftwich seemed to take most of the snaps with the first unit, and didn't do badly. Jerrod Johnson is another really big guy who has an impressive arm, and this has emboldened some to suggest that this is indeed the last roundup for Charlie Batch. As the man says; not so fast my friend. While Leftwich looked good running the no huddle, Batch looked better, doing a fine job in finding the underneath receivers, and buying time, ala Ben with his mobility. He was consistently hitting the running backs and tight ends on short and medium patterns playing the part of the wiley veteran to perfection. It is also clear from crowd reaction that Charlie is also very popular. Representing the other side of the equation were a couple of 20 something young men who, while scanning a copy of the camp roster, stated that Batch was "87 years old." In a crowd favorite, the quarterbacks had a contest trying to lob passes into huge trash cans set up along the sidelines. Charlie and Ben were the winners of the competition.

Running backs. This was my first time seeing Baron Batch perform. Other than Redman he is the only back who does everything well. He is a much better blocker than Dwyer and, obviously, Rainey. He makes sharp cuts as a runner, and does not go down the first time he is hit. I don't see how you keep him off this team. Rainey is not as easy to tackle as you might imagine. He bounced outside well after absorbing some initial hits without going down. Dwyer ran well enough, but i think he gets Ben killed if they are relying upon him to block.

Wide receivers. Antonio Brown abused everyone matched up against him, including Ike Taylor and Keenan Lewis. He seems to be at the point where he can pretty much do whatever he wants out there. Jerricho Cotchery burned Will Allen badly for a touchdown catch during a seven on seven drill. I saw none of the 'Sweed-like' difficulties allleged to Tony Clemons, or any of the other receivers for that matter. I thought Derrick Williams and David Gilreath had particularly strong showings.

Defensive backs. Keenan Lewis intercepted a pass by Byron intended for Cotchery during the two minute drill. He also defended successfully against Brown on a deep pattern in seven on sevens. Perhaps the most impressive individual performance was when Terrence Frederick blew up Weslye Saunders after he received a pass from Batch. Saunders was otherwise very impressive. Myron Rolle mugged Clemons on a play in order to break up a pass. Andre Freeman and to a lesser extent, Will Allen struggled.

Offensive lineman. Mike Adams ran with the first group today. Foster, Colon, Gilbert and Pouncey rounded out the group, but, frankly a lot of combinations were used during the evening. I think its premature to read anything into this at this stage of the game. Heyward got the better of Colon during a one on one match up. I didn't notice De Castro at all, for what it's worth.

Defensive lineman. Heyward was the most impressive of this group. Ta'amu took some snaps at end. McLendon looked good as well.

Stevenson Sylvester seemed to trample some folks in the backs (and tight ends) on backers drill. I watching that I missed the action that was going on with receivers and defensive backs. But I heard a lot of crowd reaction to what was transpiring there.

A long, over two and a half hours, practice ended around 9:30. After the player caravan left the premises, fans were presented with a truly impressive fireworks display, ending at a little past 10 pm. It was my first time at the night practice and I would highly recommend it if you are planning a trip for next year.